I have been surfing the net to find a good place to study language in the vicinity of KL or PJ, preferably day classes. UiTM does offer quite a number of international languages but all its classes are conducted at night. I do not plan to drive to these classes and therefore the venue should be near a public transport facilities. Wherever possible I would like to mix around with other ethnic groups or nationalities as much as possible too. So I found out about language classes at YMCA. Well, YMCA is excellent location-wise and the fees are very reasonable. There are day classes as well as night classes. For the time being the basic classes are conducted at night. Perhaps I wait for may be December's schedule for the right classes. First I have to become a member of YMCA in order to get discounted prices for the language courses. So I have to go to the YMCA in Brickfields. Nostalgic place, Brickfields, a lot of memories for me. I used to stay in Brickfields from 1985 to 1986. I went abroad in Sept 1986 and came back in June 1987. I continued living in Brickfields in 1987 until my house was ready and I moved to Port Klang in 1995.
Brickfields was a very lively place even in the late 80's and mid 90's and a lot bachelors stayed around there. Almost everything was within walking distance. Indian grocery shops with all the characteristics of bygone era were there. There were nostalgic and comforting smells of spices and incense within these old shops with the old shopkeepers in the thin white pagoda T-shirts and sarongs (kain pelikat). There were famous daun pisang restaurants called Sri Pandi and Sri Devi. Sri Pandi and Sri Devi are still are still around and they have the typical decor and atmosphere of Malaysian Indian restaurants. Their dishes are delicious with all the daun pisang plates and stainless steel condiment carriers. Banks, post office, police station, mini-markets, clinics, bookshop (the famous Anthonion bookstore), Chinese kopi tiams, pawn shop, budget hotels, old government quarters and plenty of mamak stalls around. On weekends if we have nothing on, me and a few of my close friends would often hung out at these stalls late into the night having good as well silly conversations while enjoying really delicious teh tarik and really really delicious mamak thick soup with a slice of very thickly cut bread. These stalls would remained open until two or three o'clock in the morning. Even the National Museum and KL Botanical Garden were within walking distance, if you know the short cuts. I don't think that is possible anymore nowadays, with all the the huge skyscrapers everywhere and the one-way streets in placed around Brickfields and Jalan Travers area. There was also the seedier side of Brickfields along Jalan Berhala and the likes where the ladies of the night were available. Wouldn't surprise me if the situation is still the same.
While living in Brickfields I was renting a room in a four-room unit in a building right opposite the Quepacs apartment. The unit was long and airy and our landlords were a Chinese couple slightly younger than me, Ong and Yap. The household was truly multiracial. The landlords were Chinese, and the tenants were me, and Indian teacher Maniwanan and another Malay couple. We got along quite well and became good friends. I was a much more active individual back then. There were always activities planned for weekends and I also went home to my parents quite often.
Brickfields today is a bustling district with all that skyscrapers around. The main rail transportation hub is there for easy access to KLIA and KLIA2 and to other areas in and around Klang Valley. A lot of old buildings have given way to high rise apartments, a far cry from before when there were quite a number of dilapidated buildings around. Beside the nearby train network the area is also plied with good bus and taxi networks. It is a place with all the amenities at your finger tips and would be nice to live if you can afford the ridiculously high housing price and if you do not mind the jams. I think it would be nice if you live there and you work there too.
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| The escalators linking KL Sentral and NU Sentral |
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| NU Sentral is a rather posh shopping centre, definitely towards the higher end side |
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| Some tenants have not moved in yet |
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| MPH's sale on LG floor of NU Sentral |
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| Looking down from NU Sentral, to the right is towards KL city centre. These are old buildings from the early eighties. I can still recognise them. |
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| Some shrubs. Honestly I think they should put more effort in planting more trees to soften the hard passive massive concrete jungle impact. |
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| The forever busy Jalan Tun Sambanthan |
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| No more street crossing for pedestrians wanting to go across Jalan Tun Sambanthan from either side. |
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| Monster concrete blocks. This side of Jalan Tun Sambanthan is almost unrecognisable to me. |
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| Looks as if the littering habit is a bit on the mend compared to before. There's still hope for Malaysians. |
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| I ended up buying these two books from the MPH sale. The book hoarder in me just couldn't resist despite my to-be-read pile at home. |
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| I also ended up with two muranos and the red-capped teddy bear charm. I fought hard to resist them but I succumbed to temptation. Bracelet and clips are existing ones though. |
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